Visiting Eataly

I was in Eataly for coffee with some Singaporean ladies recently and I thought that the place was quite interesting to bring Cartcart to have a look see and so we headed there last weekend.

With the first chain opened in Turin (and then in locations all over the world successively) Eataly is sort of like a high end food hypermarket where you could get a large variety of food products and complementaries.

Located in Ostiense, the place has been opened for almost a year, but Cart and I have never thought of visiting it before this as we knew that it was a popular place, and hence thought that it would be hard to find parking. But there was ample parking there, and you can park for free for an hour.

Eataly Roma was supposed to be an air terminal, which was later abandoned which kind of explains the unique look of the area. Even Cart quipped that he felt as if he was inside an airport while we were walking inside.

There are 3 levels full of food products that are segmented into different areas like the fish segment, meat segment, olive oils segment and so on and so forth. There are also spots where you could eat. My favourite section would have to be the fried food section. The smell of fried seafood and roasted chickens are so inviting.

The fourth level is set for having conferences and cooking lessons.

It’s been said that in Eataly is that you could find things from smaller producers, typically difficult to find in a regular supermarket. We managed to find Spuma Bionda, something that Cart drank during his childhood years.

I’m not sure if Eataly is something that Italians themselves would frequent, because the things here seems quite expensive (I saw a plentiful of people with their trolleys full all the same) And it seems that the place is visited by mostly tourists – you could tell when they have a full meal at about 5 pm – Too late for lunch and too early for dinner to a regular Giovanni.

Nevertheless, with all the interesting things to see there, I think that Eataly is a place worth visiting to, for a look see, or just for having a cuppa with a small group of friends.

Sidenote : While we were there reading a menu, there was a man who came up to Cart and he started talking like they were friends. He even said, “Ti voglio bene” to Cart which I thought was unusual. So I thought he was an old friend or a relative. I found out later that he’s Andy Luotto – a famous comedian. It was so unreal.